Over a year ago I wrote five myths about self-publishing and where appropriate I post about self-publishing and the Indi author on my social media platforms.

Myth
Vanity publishing is for failed authors?

FactVanity publishing isn’t bad. Over 100 years ago writers’ were commonly vanity published and were prepared to pay to publish what was important to them; putting their money where their mouth was. These were the precursors of the independent music industry that began in the 70’s. An example is Alistair Crowley’s works which sold poorly at the time, but is now an expensive collector’s item; virtually impossible to purchase. People like Crowley were intellectuals and rebels who had little chance of being published by conservative mainstream presses. Every blog and Facebook post is an example of vanity publishing. The true Indi authors have been around for a long time. In the digital world we’ve seen an explosion of this kind of work and vanity publishing is not a pejorative term.